Portrait of Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

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Price: $20,000.00 USD  - Currency Converter Shipping inside United Kingdom: Quoted at time of purchase Shipping outside United Kingdom: Quoted at time of purchase

Description: Sir Winston Churchill was the eldest son of the aristocrat Lord Randolph Churchill, born on 30th November 1874. He is best known for his stubborness yet courageous leadership as Prime Minister for Great Britain when he led the British people from the brink of defeat during World War II. Following his graduation from the Royal Military College in Sandhurst he was commissioned in the Forth Hussars in February 1895. As a war correspondent he was captured during the Boer War. After his escape he became a National Hero. Ten month later he was elected as a member of the Conservative Party. In 1904 he joined the Liberal Party where he became the president of the Board of Trade. It was in 1910 he became Home Secretary where he worked with David Lloyd George. In 1911 he left the Home Office and became first Lord of the Admiralty. His career was almost destroyed as a result of the unsuccessful Gallipoli campaign during the First World War. He was forced to resign from the Admiralty. However, he returned to Government as the Minister of Munition in 1917. In this year he joined the coalition party in which he was a member until it collapsed in 1922 when for two years he was out of Parliament. He returned to the conservative government in 1924 and was given the job of Chancellor of the Exchequer. For ten years during the depression Churchill was denied cabinet office. His backing and support for King Edward VIII during his abdication were frowned upon by the national government. However in September 1939, when Nazi Germany declared war on Poland, the public supported him in his views. Once again Neville Chamberlain appointed him First Lord of the Admiralty on September 3rd, 1939. In 1940 Churchill succeeded Chamberlain as prime minister and during World War II he successfully secured military aid and moral support from the United States. He travelled endlessly during the war establishing close ties with leaders of other nations and co-ordinated a military strategy which subsequently ensured Hitler's defeat. His tireless efforts gained admiration from all over the world. He was defeated however during the 1945 election by the Labour party who ruled until 1951. Churchill regained his power in 1951 and lead Britain once again until 5th April 1955 when ill health forced him to resign. He spent much of his latter years writing (The History of the English-Speaking People) and painting. In recognition of this historical studies he received the Nobel Price for Literature in 1953 and in 1963 the US Congress conferred on him honorary American citizenship. In 1965, at the age of 90 he died of a stroke. His death marked the end of an era in British History and he was given a state funeral and was buried in St. Martin's Churchyard, Bladon, Oxfordshire. During all of his life he had served no less than six British monarchs: Queen Victoria, Edward VII, George IV, Edward VIII, George VI and Elisabeth II. The artist Bernard Hailstone (1910-1987) was known for his portraits of royalty,members of the Armed Services, musicians and personalities of stage and screen. Among the most memorable are his portraits of Sir Winston Churchill, Peter Ustinov and Sir John Barbirolli. His portrait of Lord Olivier now hangs in the bar of the Garrick Club. Less known, but among his best work, are his paintings of the Blitz. During the war he joined up as a fireman in the Auxiliary Fire Service, along with such artists as Norman Hepple and Leonard Rosoman, and would set up his easel among the bombed London churches and smouldering buildings when there was a lull in the raids.The experiences of these firemen artists were not without their humorous side, for example, when Hailstone helped to extinguish a fire in a warehouse containing barrels of rum near the docks, or when he was disciplined for using His Majesty';s gas to give himself enough light to complete a picture after dark. His work came to the notice of Kenneth Clark, who in 1941 asked him to become an official war artist to the Ministry of Transport. During this period he recorded the life of the Atlantic and Mediterranean Convoys. In 1944 he was sent to South East Asia Command (SEAC) to paint Lord Mountbatten and members of his staff. Much of his work is in the Imperial War Museum. This was the beginning of Hailstone's career as a portrait painter, which he pursued for the rest of his life - perhaps, some felt, at the expense of his sensitive landscape painting. Bernard Hailstone came from a large family, in Hadlow,Kent, and he remained in Hadlow for the rest of his life. His elder brother,Harold,was a well-known Punch artist and illustrator. Bernard himself was the seventh child of a seventh son, a fact to which he attributed the good fortune and luck which he enjoyed during his adventurous life. A generous and warmhearted man, he was very good company,and must have been one of the very few painters who could work with others around him. He was never so happy as when dining in the convivial atmosphere of the Chelsea Arts Club or teaching his pupils during the weekly painting classes he held at this studio. Teaching for him was perhaps rather more an occasion for getting intouch with others than a strict economic necessity,for he had a cavalier attitude to money and an endearing absent-minded and disorganised way of life which kept his many friends amused. In spite of this, Bernard Hailstone was much in demand and travelled the globe making new friends through his commissions. He often travelled to New York on the QE2, and would entertain passengers with after-dinner talks on his long and varied career and eminent people he had painted.

Status: For Sale	Reference#: 2590
Condition: Good condition, relined and recently cleaned.	Year: 1957
Country: United Kingdom
Height: 30 in. (76.20 cm)
Width: 25 in. (63.50 cm)
Title: Portrait of Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965), 1957
Type: Oil on canvas

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